Page images
PDF
EPUB

52. THE PETITION OF THE WIFE OF ALMAS ALI Cawn, to WARREN HASTINGS.

1. May the blessings of thy God wait upon thee, may th sun of glory shine round thy head, and may the gates of plenty, honor, and happiness, be always open to thee and thine.

2. May no sorrow distress thy days, may no strife disturb thy nights, may the pillow of peace kiss thy cheeks, and the pleasures of imagination attend thy dreams; and when length of years makes thee tired of earthly joys, and the curtain of death gently closes round the last sleep of human existence, may the angels of God attend thy bed, and take care that the expiring lamp of life shall not receive one rude blast to hasten its extinction.

3. O, hearken then, to the voice of distress, and grant the petition of thy servant. Spare the father of my children, save my husband, my all that is dear! Consider, sir, that he did not become rich by iniquity; and that what he possessed, was the inheritance of a long line of flourishing ancestors, who, in those smiling days, when the thunder of Great Britain was not heard on the fertile plains of Hindostan, reaped their harvests in quiet, and enjoyed their patrimony unmolested.

[ocr errors]

4. Think, O think! that the God you worship, delights not in the blood of the innocent; remember thy own commandment: Thou shalt not kill;" and by the order of heaven, give me back my Almas Ali Cawn; and take all our wealth, strip us of all our precious stones, of all our gold and silver, but take not the life of my husband! Innocence is seated on his brow, and the milk of human kindness flows round his heart; let us wander through the deserts, let us become tillers and laborers in those delightful spots of which he was once lord and master;

5. But spare, O mighty sir! spare his life! let not the instrument of death be lifted up against him, for he has not committed any crime; accept our treasures with gratitude; thou hast them at present by force; we will remember thee in our prayers, and forget that we were ever rich and powerful.

6. My children beseech from thee, the author of their existence; from that humanity which we have been told glows in the hearts of Englishmen, by the honor, by the virtue, the honesty, and the maternal feelings of the great queen, whose

offspring is so dear to her, the miserable wife of thy prisoner, beseeches thee to save the life of her husband, and restore him to her arms; thy God will reward thee, thy country must thank thee, and she now petitioning, will pray for thee.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

It would seem that such a petition, and from such a source, would almost create a soul under the ribs of death;" but it produced no effect upon the unfeeling and unprincipled man to whom it was addressed. The friends of humanity, wherever they may be found, look with decided disapprobation upon this, and all other similar instances of cruelty, which have occured in England or elsewhere. The execution of the Rev. William Dodd, who was not guilty of a crime deserving severe punishment, which took place, during the reign of George III. in less than a year subsequently to the adoption of the declaration of American Independence, inspired our political fathers with additional zeal, against "a prince whose character" was "thus marked, by every act which may define a tyrant." Sheridan and Burke, in their invectives against Warren Hastings, use very strong language. Sheridan, in one of his public speeches, calls him a monster who stalked over the country, tainting and poisoning with pestiferous breath, what his voracious appetite could not devour." Burke, in his eloquent portraiture of the character of Hastings, says: "He is never corrupt but he is cruel; he never dines with comfort but where he is sure to create a famine. He never robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness; he devours the fallen, the indigent, the necessitous. His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vulture who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying, and the dead! As his cruelty is more shocking than his corruption, so his hypocrisy has something more frightful than his cruelty. For whilst his bloody and rapacious hand signs proscriptions, and sweeps away the food of the widow and the orphan, his eyes overflow with tears; and he converts the healing balm, that bleeds from wounded humanity, into a rancorous and deadly poison to the race of man!"

The student may profitably practise upon the last extract, embodied in the note, as well as upon the "Petition" itself. Burke's powerful remarks should be given with great and increasing energy, the first two verses of the "Petition," mildly,—and the rest of it, in the most earnest manner, but not on a high key.

53. SPEECH OF WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM.

1. My lords; I am astonished-I am shocked, to hear such principles confessed,—to hear them avowed in this house, or even in this country. I did not intend to have encroached again on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation, I feel myself impelled to speak.

2. My lords, we are called upon as members of this house, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity" that God and nature have put into our hands!" What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity.

3. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature, to the massacres of the Indian's scalping knife! to the savage, torturing, murdering, and devouring his unhappy victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honor.

4. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn; upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution.

5. I call upon the honor of your lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country, to vindicate the national character. I invoke the genius of the British constitution.

6. From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country. In vain did he defend, and establish the liberty of Britain, against the tyranny of Rome, if these worse than popish cruelties, and inquisitorial practices, are endured among us.

7. To send forth the merciless Indian, thirsting for blood! against whom? your protestant brethren!-to lay waste their dwellings, and extirpate their race and name, by the aid and instrumentality of these ungovernable savages!

8. Spain can no longer boast preeminence in barbarity. She armed herself with blood-hounds, to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen, in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity.

9. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the state, to stamp upon this infamous procedure, the indelible stain of the public abhorrence. More particularly, I call upon the venerable prelates of our religion, to

do away this iniquity; let them perform a lustration to purify the country from this deep and deadly sin.

This speech of Mr. Pitt, was made in the British Parliament, November 18, 1777, on the subject of employing Indians to fight against the Americans, and in opposition to Lord Suffolk, who had said in the course of the debate, "that England had a right to use all the means that God and nature had put into her hands, to conquer America." "The tapestry" of the house of lords, of which the orator speaks, represents the defeat of the Spanish armada, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, by Admiral Howard, an ancestor of Lord Suffolk. This admiral to whom he alludes, is a conspicuous figure in the tapestry. It will be seen that Mr. Pitt, although an Englishman, manifested an interest in the happiness of the Americans. He was so eloquent, that it was justly said by Cowper:

"It is praise enough, to fill the ambition of a private man,
That Chatham's language is his mother tongue."

It will readily occur to the student in oratory, that this speech should be read or recited in a very animated and energetic manner.

54. NIGHT BEFORE, AND BATTLE OF WATERLOO.—Byron.

1. There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
The lamp shone o'er fair women and brave men.
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage-bell;

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell.

2. Did ye not hear it ?-No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfin'd;
No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet;
But hark! that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm! arm! it is—it is—the cannon's opening roar !

3. Within a windowed niche of that high hall,
Sat Brunswick's fated chieftain. He did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,
And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deemed it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well,
Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier,

And roused the vengeance, blood alone could quell;
He rush'd into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.

4. Ah! then and there were hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated. Who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet, such awful morn could rise.

5. And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Roused up the soldier, ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens with terror dumb,

Or whispering with white lips-"The foe! they come! they come!"

6. Last noon beheld them full of lusty life;

Last eve, in beauty's circle, proudly gay;

The midnight brought the signal sound of strife;
The morn, the marshalling in arms; the day,
Battle's magnificently stern array!

The thunder-clouds close over it, which, when rent,
The earth is covered thick with other clay,

Which her own clay shall cover-heaped and pent,
Rider and horse,-friend,-foe, in one red burial blent!

Byron's Description of the Night before the Battle of Waterloo, and of the battle itself, is well suited for an elocutionary exercise, especially the second verse, in which the sentiment requires the low, middle and high key in quick succession.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »